All posts tagged: lending

“Slap in the face”: Trump DOJ plans to settle predatory lending case without compensating victims

“Slap in the face”: Trump DOJ plans to settle predatory lending case without compensating victims

Published by Sam Flores

In December 2023, the U.S. Justice Department sued a Texas land developer it accused of duping tens of thousands of Hispanic residents into predatory mortgages, a landmark case for the Biden administration. Colony Ridge, which sold plots in massive subdivisions north of Houston, had become a “one-stop shop for discriminatory lending,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. The developer targeted Hispanic applicants through false advertising and persuaded them to take out high-interest loans that many could not afford, then benefited when it foreclosed on their properties, the lawsuit alleged. “Our goal at the end of the day is to ensure that victims are compensated for their loss,” Clarke declared. Three years later, the Trump administration and Colony Ridge are on the verge of resolving the case. But the $68 million proposed settlement provides no money for victims of the alleged scheme. Instead, it sets aside $20 million for policing and immigration enforcement — a provision that may be used to target the very people who …

New NBA owner played key role at company accused of predatory lending

New NBA owner played key role at company accused of predatory lending

Published by Sam Flores

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is on the verge of giving the Portland Trail Blazers a major gift: hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to overhaul the team’s arena in an effort to keep the Blazers’ incoming owner, billionaire Tom Dundon, from moving the NBA franchise to a new city. The deal came together with little public discussion of how Oregon and other states in 2020 landed a $550 million settlement with the car loan company where Dundon built his wealth. The settlement followed an investigation into lending practices that Oregon’s then-attorney general, in a news release, described as “predatory and harmful.” Now, Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica have obtained documents that reveal the role Dundon played in pushing some of the key company practices that regulators later presented as problematic. Specifically, the documents show that Dundon, as the company’s CEO, was behind what regulators called an “aggressive push” at Santander Consumer USA in 2013 to waive requirements that car dealers prove borrowers had enough income to afford loans. The company would then charge more for …

Indian telecom firm Bharti Airtel to invest .2 billion to expand digital lending

Indian telecom firm Bharti Airtel to invest $2.2 billion to expand digital lending

Published by Sam Flores

Feb 23 : Bharti Airtel will invest 200 billion rupees ($2.2 billion) in its financial arm over the next few years, India’s second-largest mobile carrier by number of users said on Monday, as it steps up its push into digital lending. The capital will be infused into its subsidiary, Airtel Money, which received a non-banking financial company (NBFC) license from the Reserve Bank of India on February 13. Airtel’s expansion comes as competition intensifies in India’s non-bank lending sector, where conglomerates such as Jio Financial Services and established players like Bajaj Finance are scaling up retail credit operations. The move strengthens Airtel’s financial services business as it diversifies beyond telecom into areas such as data centres, cloud and enterprise services. The telecom major will contribute 70 per cent of the 200 billion rupees capital, with key shareholder Bharti Enterprises providing the remaining, Airtel said in a press release. The move “will leverage the large Airtel customer base to build the next growth engine for the company and further diversify its portfolio,” it added. ($1 = …

The #1 Rule for a Community Lending Library

The #1 Rule for a Community Lending Library

Published by José Betancourt

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. To Read: Is BookTok Dying? There’s an old adage that any headline that ends with a question mark can be answered with “no,” and it seems to hold for the latest round of concern about what’s going on with BookTok. Literary agent and BookTok expert Alyssa Morris identifies “a real sense of fatigue” across social media and notes TikTok users’ worries that new ownership will negatively impact the algorithm but wisely advises a wait-and-see approach. Even if readers are growing tired of long series, “spicy” romantasy, and trope-based reading selections, there are more than enough standalone titles and genre-defying books to keep them going. These shifts may feel alarming to younger readers and folks whose bookish internet experience has been limited to TikTok, but take it from someone who was there when the old magic was written: this …

Fintech lending giant Figure confirms data breach

Fintech lending giant Figure confirms data breach

Published by skeptic

Figure Technology, a blockchain-based lending company, confirmed it experienced a data breach. On Friday, Figure spokesperson Alethea Jadick told TechCrunch in a statement that the breach originated when an employee was tricked with a social engineering attack that allowed the hackers to steal “a limited number of files.” The statement said the company is communicating “with partners and those impacted,” and offering free credit monitoring “to all individuals who receive a notice.” Figure’s spokesperson did not respond to a series of specific questions about the breach.  The hacking group ShinyHunters took responsibility for the hack on its official dark web leak website, saying the company refused to pay a ransom, and published 2.5 gigabytes of allegedly stolen data.  TechCrunch saw a portion of the data, which included customers’ full names, home addresses, dates of birth, and phone numbers.  A member of ShinyHunters told TechCrunch that Figure was among the victims of a hacking campaign that targeted customers who rely on the single sign-on provider Okta. Other victims of the campaign include Harvard University and the …